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More Sand, Different Desert

This evening we moved from the deserts of the Sudan to ones in Libya. We also jumped forwards about 50 years to a conflict between Germany and Britain. This time we had tanks. Or rather a tank each! We went for What a Tanker this evening.

My Matilda in the foreground faces off against a MKIII in the background. Although the Matilda was slow, in the early parts of the game she was off like a whippet across the sands.

I managed to get a ranging shot in my but failed to do any damage…please note the house the extreme left, it played an important part in the ensuing battle.

The only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme Tune as we chased each other around the building. We manged to fire lots of times, but kept saving the hits… once again my dice were on form…

Reload, Shoot, reload, shoot reload… this happened so many times… eventually my lucky dice rolls began to tell.

In the end Joe was down to a single command dice so we called it an allied victory.

It’s a really fun game with much hilarity throughout. Although I really enjoy the game, I reckon it is not a one I could play week after week.

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Desert Walls

Well tonight I managed to get another three wall bases done. I say bases, but in reality I may just leave them as they are.

This lot were a lot messier than the last one as I mixed tile grout, Wood glue and brown paint together.

Needless to say I dropped things in it, put my elbow in it and generally made a bloody mess.

I reckon I am going to leave it with these 4. I also have the houses (some will be based together), I have hills and I have palm groves. There needs to be enough terrain to make it interesting but not so much that it is like street fighting.

Tomorrow I will get a well built or printed and then get some houses stuck onto their base. I printed lots of spare walls so hopefully I can make things interesting.

Today, as I mentioned yesterday, I managed an actual game. I got to play Star Saga, for those that don’t know, it is a Sci Fi dungeon crawl (or should that be spaceship crawl). It was quiet enjoyable. Four of us basically ran around lots, shooting anything that moved and somehow, against mounting odds managed to win, by escaping the level. It was funny seeing the same miniatures I used for my Mobile Infantry being painted differently and used in their intended game. Much fun was had by all.

The other thing I got today were the Ninja from Battle Valour Games. I am rather chuffed that scale wise they are pretty damn close. Aesthetically different in appearance, but aren’t the teeny tiny miniatures I was worried they might be.

Above we have a TS peasant, a BVG ninja and then a TS archer. They will certainly do the job. In this case the TS minis have a whole lot more detail, but a ninja, in a typical ninja suit doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of detail to have. On the up side, they are all unique poses, armed with ‘typical’ ninja weapons and equipment. The only archetypal weapon missing is a throwing star.

These are not as cheap as the Tin Soldier ones. £2.75 for eight miniatures with TS, the Ninja came in at £4 for six minis. This is certainly not a criticism, merely a statement of fact. The BVG sets, have civilians as well as ONI and also undead warriors which are very tempting. The other thing is they come with the sashimono and don’t need to purchase them separately.

Although I am technically on my hols I am going to go into work to do some paperwork 😱. I need to make sure everything is up to scratch before the kids go back in a couple of weeks.

I shall Carry on with preparations when I return tomorrow evening (or afternoon if I lose the will to live).

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DAK… Further Progress

So tonight I painted numbers and crosses on the AFV’s…

I managed to paint the numbers in white without problems, but then had total hand wobbles going over things with a super fine Sharpie. No matter, they are almost done. Still tools etc to paint, but otherwise I am leaving them as is.

Believe it or not, the army painter wash ‘glued’ the turrets in position and it took a lot of force to budge them. I actually thought that one of the 38T’s wasn’t going to move at all.

I also printed a dodge truck, this time I sprayed it with support still in place, just so you can see how they come off the print plate…

I really do need to get the top layers sorted out. I can increase the top layers in Cura and really should experiment a bit more. I could also sand it as well… so lots of experiments need to be had.

This is how it looks with the supports removed…

This was printed on its wheels so it needed support the full length of it. I could have printed it on its rear, but it would still need support in various places. On the wheels means that most of the support is underneath where it can’t really be seen.

As the kilogram of black filament is nearing the end then I ordered another roll, this time I went for a light grey, should make photographing things a bit easier.

The other thing I managed today was to increase the height of my wall…

I pushed it to the back of the base, this means that tanks on the tabletop have a hull down appearance. The one inside the wall doesn’t have as much cover. Which are dealt with in the rules.

My one major criticism with the wall is that the boulders are massive. Now to be fair my rockery is made up of similar sized boulders, and indeed, when I was laying my broadband cable there were some rocks that the digger couldn’t shift. Scale size I do have some pebbles that would look about the right size but they would be an absolute sod to stack up.

Tomorrow I intend to paint the equipment on the tanks, then if fine get some varnish onto everything

I am, shock horror, going to the wargames club again… two weeks running (must nearly be a record). I will also be getting new toys as I bought a pack of the Battle Valour Ninja to see how they fit in with the Tin Soldier ones… fingers crossed .🤞

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DAK… a bit of Progress

So tonight I pretty much used half my Army Painter Light Tone covering this lot with shade…

I am not sure whether I like it or not. It might grow on me though, and to be honest everything has to be finished and dry by Friday so perhaps it had better grow on me!

I will get numbers and the like on them once the wash has dried.

The other thing I had a go at was a wall. It is a bit wide, but I used some ‘no more nails’ which can be seen squidging between the pebbles.

I will make a few more of these to spread around the table to act as cover. This is a low one, either this, or the next ones will be taller. I will add more pebbles with Wood glue to cover the ‘no more nails’ . I decided to use this stick stuff as I had an open tube that needed using up.

I cut out three irregular sized bases out of ePVC. I sort of just squirted out the glue for this one at a random size. Hopefully it will fit one of them. If not I am sure I can do another one.

So tomorrow is going to be busy, busy, busy.

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DAK … Making a Start

So after a night off yesterday I got back into things again tonight…

That is all tracks and wheels done on the German tanks.

It is quite interesting that some had a white undercoat and a couple of layers of paint and some had a black undercoat and about six layers of paint. I bet you can’t tell which is which.

It’s a bit late in the day to worry about it now. This is the first real time they have been next to each other. Tomorrow they will get a wash and some numbers and that will be them pretty much done. The kubelwagen will get the silver and blue Contrast paint for the windows. Once all of the tanks are painted I will give them a few coats of varnish to help them last a bit longer.

Still a fair bit to go… I have found a 3D printed baseboard on Thingiverse which I might print out. I am running out of both time and filament so I might be reduced to printing them on paper.

I will order some PLA this evening and hope for the best.

I was having an early night tonight, but sadly started watching YouTube

These guys and gals made me laugh out loud. If you have played any kind of computer game you will understand how funny these are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsQyHNTDYls&feature=share

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Allied Tanks… A Night Off

Well sort of a night off… I didn’t get in until 22.30 tonight and was going to have a night off as I had been off to see my Eldest as Pugsley in the school production of the Adams Family. Although I was a proud dad and was amazed at her singing voice ( she never really sings in the house) it was a great night out and would have been If I had been a regular punter.

Anyway when I got back I thought I had better do something on the tanks…

Yeah I know the triangles are a bit thick in places, if I have time and can be bothered then I will go back and redo them.

I know I didn’t need the red triangle on them, but it makes them a bit more interesting and that is my story.

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Allied Tanks… Little Progress

Well Tonight was busy, busy, busy so I really didn’t have time to do much on the tanks, but at least I managed something.

I managed to paint the tools on each and the hawsers on the Churchill

The other thing I managed was to paint the windscreens and windows on the Tilly and staff car…

I decided to do a little experiment. I painted them bright silver as an undercoat and when it was dry I went over it with a blue Contrast paint. The darker bit was a second layer, this will tone down when it dries. To be honest I am quite chuffed with the results.

I must apologise to anyone who heard a Geordie bloke swearing rather a lot this evening. It had dawned on me yesterday that I would need more dice for my tank game at the weekend. So, although I live on Shetland, I thought I would give Amazon a go and see if they could get it to me pretty quickly. They said it would be here by the 10th. That caused me a momentary wobble as the 10th would be too late as I needed….it….by…. the ….. oh Bollocks, by the 19th. For some reason I had got it into my head that the Games day was this weekend coming, in fact it is the weekend after, what is more, I made the poster to advertise it. I have been panicking all last week that I was running out of time and that somehow I had lost a week in my self imposed timetable. So I am now quite relieved that I have a bit longer to go.

I can now relax a bit, and as I am off next week it will give me a lot more time to crack on with things.

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Allied Tanks… Further Work

Well by further work I mean I applied a light tone wash…

They have certainly dulled down a bit from yesterday

I might dry brush them a bit tomorrow to get them back to a lighter tan.

I didn’t get much done today as this morning We put in a stove in the kitchen and this afternoon I dropped my kids off and, shock horror, actually went to a wargames club! Yes I did indeed… probably the first time in 2019.

I took my submarine game and Martin and I had a bash at it, we survived…just and limped back into Kiel. Our Score was a D, but at least we sank stuff and survived!

There are at least three (possibly four) gaming clubs up here. Thule which I was one of the founder members in 2007. This meets on a Thursday, but as I game with a mate who works different shift patterns sometimes the only day we can do is a Thursday ( plus I haven’t been there since about a July) not to mention where I work now and with my wife needing to be in various places on a Thursday I just haven’t managed to get this year at all. The ‘Shetland wargames’ Club meets on a Sunday and does mainly GW stuff, but over the years I have noticed them starting to do some historical stuff. The other two clubs are mainly Dungeons and Dragons Role play games. So I am going to give the Sunday club a go and see how I get on.

Well I bit the bullet and ordered a DBA Samurai army from Tin Soldier. This will get me started at least, it’s not the large one I wanted but it is less than half the price of the bigger one.

On the Up side, Battle Valour Games are now doing 15mm Samurai, and Martin, who I gamed with today is the uk supplier. I will purchase a sample pack to see how they compare size wise to Tin Soldier. Hopefully they will be a similar size to the Scalians which fit in well with Tin Soldier.

Tomorrow I will try and get some more painting done.

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Allied Tanks

Well I am off with the British/commonwealth tanks and vehicles.

I fully intended to do a slate colour over the base colour then promptly forgot and chose green! Luckily General orders are my friend here.

1941 –  G.O.1272 now calls for a basic colour of Light Stone No.61 or  Portland Stone No.64, according to supplies with one disruptive colour over at the discretion of Commands i.e. Palestine , Malta , Trans-Jordan etc.  This cancels GO 297 of 1940 and GO 795 of 1941.   At first this may have been Slate in patterns similar to Caunter but later possibly Slate No. 34, Silver Grey No. 28 and Black have been noted in apparently random patterns

1942.  Over Light Stone 61 the single colour disruptive was still in force although many units did not employ it whilst others used a variety of schemes, designs and colours, some with black and/or white outlining.

I painted the tracks on the tank and the tyres on the wheeled vehicles with the same colour as the French armour.

These still need a wash putting on them to get some shading in… and then getting all the gubbins painted.

Tomorrow I will carry on with these and try and get them finished by the evening. Then onto the German armour.

I have suddenly thought that I need some walls etc to act as line of sight blockers/ cover. I have buildings and palm trees, but could really do with some small walled fields – the problem is I am running out of time.

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Tanks of Different Colours

Well okay, having two different colours is different right?

Hopefully they are now different enough to be distinguishable on the table now. Waiting for the paint to cure before cracking on with them. The Allied Stuff is more than likely to light a colour, but with a wash on it will darken up a fair bit.

Every time I look at the allied tanks I think I don’t have enough, then remember that I have all the French stuff too.

I did have a bit of a hiccup getting these done! All of a sudden the airbrush stopped pushing paint out. I was a bit miffed as I had just filled the cup and had to dump it!

After much swearing, prodding and fiddling it started again, so everything ended up getting a few coats over the white. No doubt tomorrow I will find the one with only one set of tracks and wheels painted.

As I had the ivory out, I though I might as well blast the brick sections on the houses.

A bit of clean up is required, but it was a heck of a lot faster than with a brush. I will give them all a wash of something brownish too to make them pop a bit more, that and paint all of the wood.

And finally we come to sheep, yes sheep… the woolly Bahh bahh things.

I was stood this morning waiting for my lift and I noticed something peculiar in the field of rams. They seemed to have ‘paired’ up. When one moved off then a second would follow. What made it a bit more weird is that they had paired thus…

One black face and one white face in each grouping. In this photo you can see the black faced ram following the white one. They kept like this in these pairs all the time I was there. Probably a total coincidence but weird nonetheless.

I did feel sorry for the one in the distance as he didn’t have any friends!

It wasn’t a bad morning this morning…

Definitely Autumnal….